It is Alabama week in Tallahassee and the environment is not one that leads to winning football games. Florida State head coach Mike Norvell might be college football's most beleaguered head coach. Norvell could get the axe before the end of October. On Monday morning, it was learned that Norvell's boss, AD Michel Alford has been fired.
Alabama Crimson Tide fans can count their blessings that Greg Byrne chose Kalen DeBoer and ceased any interest he might have had in bringing Norvell to Tuscaloosa.
FSU has a quarterback problem that Norvell crested and is now making worse. Ashton Daniels has been playing quarterback since the 2022 season. He spent three seasons at Stanford and one at Auburn before transferring to FSU. According to the FSU site Chop Chat, after the Seminoles' loss to SMU, Daniels record as a quarterback starter dropped to 6-21.
What was Norvell thinking when he tied his coaching future to Daniels? Chop Chat's opinion is "Norvell's pursuit of Daniels in the transfer portal and the subsequent results should be used as a cautionary tale across college football. ... Daniels may not be getting the job done in the eyes of Norvell, but the coach brought the entire situation upon himself."
Norvell is making a serious problem worse by following a failing pattern used by former Auburn coach Hugh Freeze. Freeze made a habit of throwing quarterbacks under a bus. He did it with Payton Thorne and Jackson Arnold. Freeze once said of Thorne, "We’ve got to find a guy who won’t throw it to the other team."
Mike Norvell says he's seen Ashton Daniels execute the offense at speed in practice, but it hasn't translated when there are other factors out there in a live game.
— John Evans (@_jpevans_) September 10, 2026
Nothing indicates that Norvell has a solution to FSU's quarterback woes. None of Daniels' backups have a resume suggesting they would play better. A frustrated, under siege Norvell would be scoffed if he refused to acknowledge Daniels' deficiencies. In fairness to Norvell, he doesn't appear to be following a full Hugh Freeze script of trying to transfer blame from himself to his players.
The FSU program is in turmoil. There are no quick solutions. The situation is worsened by Norvell's offensive matchup with Kane Wommack's defense in Tuscaloosa. Wommack knows Daniels' strengths and weaknesses. As the Auburn QB last season, Daniels ran for 108 yards against Alabama. He also passed for 259 yards, but completed less than half of his pass attempts. Wommack will make sure Daniels does not come close to matching those numbers on Saturday.
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